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It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham

Education-Trailblazing College President
August 28, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) โ€” Tania Tetlow has earned a reputation as a trailblazer. She became the first woman and first layperson to serve as president of two Jesuit schools โ€” first at Loyola University New Orleans and now at Fordham University in New York City.

Fordham had previously been led by Catholic priests โ€” all male, of course โ€” since its founding in 1841.

Tetlow has thrived in these barrier-breaking roles โ€” even becoming the first Fordham president to sing the national anthem at Yankee Stadium. But she is acutely aware of the challenges facing her โ€” and other college presidents โ€” as they grapple with tight budgets, political attacks on higher education, and divisions within their student bodies arising from the Israel-Hamas war.

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

Whatโ€™s the toughest challenge, as she heads into her third academic year at Fordham?

โ€œHow much there is to juggle,โ€ she replied in an interview.

โ€œThese are enormously complicated institutions with so many different constituencies,โ€ she said. โ€œHow do you navigate the latest controversy while still moving the university forward?"

Already, she has weathered criticism from some students for increasing the cost of tuition by more than 10% over the past two years. Tuition, plus fees, will cost nearly $63,000 for full-time undergraduates for 2024-25; room and board could add roughly $18,000 to $26,000 more.

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

โ€œBridging the gap between what they can afford to pay and the excellence they deserve is getting harder and harder,โ€ Tetlow said. โ€œItโ€™s important to understand those goals are in tension with each other.โ€

Even more challenging for Tetlow, in many respects, has been calibrating her responses to the Israel-Hamas war โ€” a sensitive issue at a predominantly Catholic school where about 2.5% of the roughly 10,000 undergraduate students are Jewish and 5% are Muslim.

Last year, three days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage, Tetlow issued a statement expressing horror at โ€œthe murder and kidnapping of innocents, from elderly Holocaust survivors to children, and the resulting war.โ€

โ€œFor many of our Jewish students, colleagues, and alumni, this is yet another brutal reminder of their vulnerability, of rising antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world,โ€ she said. โ€œMany of our Muslim students, colleagues, and alumni also face the fear of collective blame and reprisals, worried about violence and discrimination.โ€

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

The president of Fordhamโ€™s Muslim Students Association, Hajer Merarda, told the universityโ€™s student-run newspaper she was outraged by the statement. She was quoted in The Fordham Ram as criticizing Tetlow's โ€œbiased, one-sided rhetoricโ€ and the omission of the words โ€œPalestineโ€ and โ€œPalestinians.โ€

In a subsequent statement on Nov. 7 and a February interview with student journalists, Tetlow sought to convey empathy and support for students across the ideological spectrum who had been adversely affected by the war.

โ€œI am so eager to console the students who are in a great deal of pain,โ€ she told the journalists. โ€œI find myself in the embarrassing situation of revealing to them I have less power than they imagine that I do.โ€

Tensions remained high throughout the academic year.

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

On May 1, pro-Palestinian protesters organized an encampment in the main lobby at Fordhamโ€™s Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan. (Its main campus is in the Bronx.) The university summoned police, who arrested 15 protesters who defied orders to leave.

โ€œThis was only about the physical protection of the campus,โ€ Tetlow said afterward. โ€œFordham students have a right to feel safe and to finish their exams. Period.โ€

Ahead of this week's start of the new academic year, Tetlow reflected on the past yearโ€™s challenges.

โ€œOur job is not to wade into every controversial issue,โ€ she said. โ€œWhat we do is to console our community.โ€

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

Amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, Tetlow said, this task โ€œhas been ridiculously fraught, because to console either side is to provoke the other side.โ€

โ€œI have tried very hard. Iโ€™ve often stumbled along the way. Itโ€™s so hard to find the right words.โ€

Nonetheless, Tetlow weathered the past year more buoyantly than many of her peers, including three women who resigned as presidents of Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania in the wake of controversy over their handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

Tetlow didnโ€™t rule out the possibility that sexism was among the factors that fueled criticism of these women in Ivy League leadership jobs. Itโ€™s an issue she knows well after breaking gender barriers at Loyola New Orleans and Fordham.

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

โ€œI of course have dealt with those obstacles,โ€ she said. โ€œBeing clear-eyed about the fact that they exist helps you overcome them.โ€

At Fordham, she added, โ€œFor every person for whom this represents jarring change, there are a dozen more who are thrilled.โ€

Asked about the Catholic Churchโ€™s entrenched refusal to ordain women as priests, Tetlow gave a nuanced answer.

โ€œFor centuries, women religious have been running schools and hospitals, proving thereโ€™s nothing women couldnโ€™t do,โ€ she said. โ€œYet the hierarchy still excludes half of humanity.โ€

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

Tetlow added that she was taught by her mother, a biblical scholar, that Jesus โ€œclearly went out of his way to engage with women.โ€

โ€œThe religious lessons are there,โ€ Tetlow said. โ€œI hope the church will continue to do better in listening to them.โ€

Tetlow also has made clear she differs with official Catholic teaching on LGBTQ+ issues. Its doctrine rejects same-sex marriage and condemns any sexual relations between gay or lesbian partners as โ€œintrinsically disordered.โ€

Last year, she gave the keynote address at the annual conference of Outreach, a Jesuit-supported initiative aimed at encouraging the acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics by the church.

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

โ€œI am here to tell you that you are loved, bathed in the overwhelming love and acceptance of God,โ€ Tetlow told the audience at a Catholic church across the street from Fordhamโ€™s Manhattan campus.

The Rev. James Martin, the Jesuit priest who founded Outreach in 2022, said Tetlow was โ€œthe perfect personโ€ to lead off the conference.

โ€œShe spoke movingly about her sister, who is gay, and her efforts to welcome LGBTQ students, faculty and staff on campus,โ€ Martin said via email.

Tetlow, assessing national developments, observes that higher education โ€œis becoming a political football.โ€

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

โ€œItโ€™s so much easier to tear down an institution than to build one,โ€ she said.

In such a climate, she is grateful to be where she is.

โ€œWhat Iโ€™m proud of is helping Fordham double down on who we are โ€” a Jesuit institution in New York, determined to find out how we can have an impact on a really broken world.โ€

โ€œThe advantage we have at this moment in a religious university is the ability to unabashedly talk about values and faith,โ€ she added. โ€œThatโ€™s harder at secular institutions, because they have to worry about offending people.โ€

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

Tetlow's ties to Fordham go back a long way. Her parents met there when they were graduate students; her father was a priest at the time but left the priesthood in order to get married.

Tetlow grew up mostly in New Orleans, attending Tulane University before going to Harvard Law School. She returned to Louisiana, working in private legal practice before spending five years as a federal prosecutor.

Over the summer, Tetlow said, she and her Fordham colleagues have been planning the launch of what they call โ€œProject Graceโ€ โ€” aimed at engaging students who are โ€œrightfully very upsetโ€ about issues ranging from climate change to political polarization to the ongoing Middle East tensions.

โ€œItโ€™s a teachable moment. ... How to channel their passions in productive ways when horrible things are happening," Tetlow said.

It's a tough time for college presidents, but Tania Tetlow thrives as a trailblazer at Fordham
Education-Trailblazing College President

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APโ€™s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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